Random Musings on the Android 14 Developer Preview 2

When Google releases a new developer preview, I rummage throughthe API differences reportthe high-level overviews,and even the release blog post,to see if there are things that warrant more attention from developers. I try to emphasize mainstream features that any developermight reasonably use, along with things that may notget quite as much attention, because they are buried in the JavaDocs.

So��� what does DP2 have in store for us?

What Got Top-Line Coverage

You can no longer kill app processes other than your own.I am stunned it took them this long to address this. Mishaal Rahmannhas more on this.

You will not be able to install apps with a targetSdkVersion below 23.My hope is that Google, or somebody, uses hypervisor techniques (or something similar)to allow running older apps in a sandbox.

MediaStore tracks who owns what, but.

What Changed with Screen Captures

There is a new DETECT_SCREEN_CAPTURE permission.This ties into registerScreenCaptureCallback() on Activity.As you might guess, this lets you find out when this activity is subject to a screencapture. It is unclear what sorts of screen captures are covered:

Screenshots only, or also screencasts? Only from MediaProjection, or also from built-in OS mechanisms? Does it include screen captures from development tools, like Android Studio?

Also note that the callback does not allow you to block the screen capture, justfind out that it happened. You can block screen captures using FLAG_SECURE, atleast to some extent.

There is also ACTION_LAUNCH_CAPTURE_CONTENT_ACTIVITY_FOR_NOTE.This captures a screenshot, allows the user to edit it, and gives you thescreenshot back via the Uri delivered to onActivityResult(). However, you will need tohold the LAUNCH_CAPTURE_CONTENT_ACTIVITY_FOR_NOTE permission,which is only available for apps in the ROLE_NOTES role.

What Is Choosy

For the ���share sheet��� (ACTION_CHOOSER), there are two new extras:

EXTRA_CHOOSER_CUSTOM_ACTIONS,for you to supply an array of ChooserAction objects representing additional entriesthat you want in the sheet

EXTRA_CHOOSER_MODIFY_SHARE_ACTION,which lets you know if the user wants to modify the content that they are sharing

What Got Highlighted

TextView got highlighted. Specifically, there is a new setSearchResultHighlights()method to allow you to specify ranges for highlighting text. And, asThomas K��nneth notedthere are new Highlights and Highlights.Builder classes for more sophisticatedhighlighting, with setHighlights() on TextView to apply them.

What Permissions Changed

There is a whole suite of new MANAGE_DEVICE_POLICY_* permissions, suchasMANAGE_DEVICE_POLICY_CAMERA andMANAGE_DEVICE_POLICY_DEVICE_IDENTIFIERS.Presumably, this ties into DevicePolicyManager.

There is a new EXECUTE_APP_ACTION permission,limited to assistants.

What Is Not Long For This World

The ���long jobs��� stuff in JobScheduler is now ���user-initiated jobs���. So,for example, the RUN_LONG_JOBS permission is now RUN_USER_INITIATED_JOBS.

What Changed with Broadcasts

A BroadcastReceiver can call getSentFromUid()and getSentFromPackage()to find out where the broadcast came from.

In related news, sendBroadcast() and sendOrderedBroadcast() now have variantsthat take a Bundle that you can build using BroadcastOptions.Right now, the only such option is whether or not the identity-sharing mentionedin the previous paragraph is enabled.

What Else Caught My Eye

There is a new overrideActivityTransition() method on Activity.The JavaDocsmay make your head spin, as it ties into the older overridePendingTransition()method and ���predictive back��� navigation.

Health Connect got its own family of packages.

WindowManager has an addProposedRotationListener() method.Your callback gets a rotation value (e.g., Surface.ROTATION_180).���This listener gives application an opportunity to selectively react to device orientation changes���.

The USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT permission was added a few years ago, to controlwhether you can raise a full-screen notification.Now, there is ACTION_MANAGE_APP_USE_FULL_SCREEN_INTENT,which you can use to launch an activity to allow the user to grant your apppermission to use ���full screen intents���. And there iscanSendFullScreenIntent() on NotificationManagerto find out the status of that permission.

PowerManager now offers isAllowedInLowPowerStandby(),which will tell you if low power standby is disabled for one reason or another.You can also react to these changes, it appears, by registering a receiverfor ACTION_LOW_POWER_STANDBY_POLICY_CHANGED.

JobScheduler now has .

While by default you can no longer create mutable PendingIntent objects wrappingan implicit Intent, FLAG_ALLOW_UNSAFE_IMPLICIT_INTENT.might let you bypass that restriction.